


The Lesser Evil

by isabeau25



Series: Wander Home [4]
Category: Epic (2013)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-03-28
Updated: 2014-03-28
Packaged: 2018-01-17 09:29:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,090
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1382455
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/isabeau25/pseuds/isabeau25
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The return to Moonhaven doesn't go quite as smoothly as Ronin would have liked, or Leafmen are scary and small children are good at hiding. <b> This story is included in <i>Babe in the Woods</i></b></p>
            </blockquote>





	The Lesser Evil

**Author's Note:**

> This story immediately follows [Little Boy Lost](http://archiveofourown.org/works/1375222).

The flight back to Moonhaven was relatively uneventful. Ronin sat the boy in front of him on his mount and let him hold onto his sack with the food. This was apparently very serious work, because while he didn’t show any sign of being afraid to fly, he clutched that bag to himself as if it were filled with gold instead of sweets. The sweets were probably better than gold. The child was all bony elbows and knobby knees. He could stand to gain some weight.

It was once they hit the rookery that they ran into trouble. Thankfully, they had missed the change over between the afternoon patrols and the evening ones, but there were still quite a few Leafmen there, bedding down their units’ birds for the night.

The boy looked at all the people, none of whom had noticed him, looked at Ronin holding out his hands to help him down, clutched the sack to himself, and bolted off the other side of the bird.

“Hey!” Ronin ducked under Greycrest’s head, trying to grab him, but he had already disappeared.

“Watch the exits!” Ronin yelled.

Immediately the guards were on alert and heads were popping out of nests and leaning over the railings of the upper levels.

“What are we watching for?” one of the guards asked.

“A little boy,” Ronin eyed the large rookery, trying to figure out which direction the child would have had to have taken to disappear so quickly. “Don’t let him out, but try not to scare him.”

Leafmen shifted to cover exits and openings, and the ones taking care of the birds left off their tasks to hunt through the levels, checking all the small places a child was likely to hide.

“What’s his name?” a woman called from the second level.

“I don’t know,” Ronin shook his head, sizing up the spiral staircase that connected all the levels.

It wouldn’t have been impossible for the boy to reach it quickly, although he would have had to have been fast. They already knew he was fast enough to get away from trained Leafmen…

“You’re carrying around a kid, and you don’t know who he is?” the woman gave him a skeptical look.

“Yes,” Ronin headed towards the staircase, not offering more of an explanation.

He missed the bemused look some of his Leafmen gave him. The stairs were solid, but also old and creaky. Ronin was fairly certain he would have heard the boy if he had run up them. He was probably still on the ground floor then, and hopefully he hadn’t managed to escape the rookery. Ronin wasn’t sure he would be able to catch him a second time.

Someone gave a titmouse whistle from up above, and Ronin ducked out of the nest he had been searching to look. Scouts used bird calls to talk to each other and their unit. This one meant something had been spotted. A Leafman on the top level leaned over the railing and pointed towards one of the nests on the end. Ronin signaled that he understood and ran up the stairs.

There were two titmice already roosted in the nest, and a little bare foot just barely visible behind them. Ronin waved away the Leafmen who were starting to gather, curious about the mysterious child their general had brought home. They dispersed reluctantly, going back to their duties.

Ronin waited until he couldn’t hear their footsteps behind him, then crouched down, leaning on the edge of the nest.

“Hey chickadee,” he called softly, “you alright in there?”

The foot stayed completely still, probably hoping that if he didn’t move, he wouldn’t be spotted. The titmice puffed out their feathers, roosting more comfortably, obviously unbothered by their new nest mate.

“I know there are lots of people here and it’s scary,” Ronin pitched his voice low, hoping to sooth the child, even if the boy couldn’t understand him, “but no one is going to hurt you.”

The foot drew back, but the child made no move to come out from behind the birds.

“We’ve got food, and a warm, safe place to sleep,” Ronin cautiously stepped into the nest, pushing aside the head of the nearest bird, who was hoping for a treat, “and we’ll find your home.”

He could see the child pressed against the far side of the nest, curled around the pack. He gave a hiccuping gasp when he realized Ronin could see him and shrank back farther. Ronin crept between the birds, stopping just shy of being close enough to grab the boy, then sitting down.

The boy clutched the pack tighter, his breath coming in uneven sobs.

“That’s yours,” Ronin reassured him, “I’m not going to take it from you.”

The child rubbed at his eyes with the back of his arm, smearing the dirt on his face and not accomplishing much else.

“I haven’t hurt you yet, have I?” Ronin let his hands rest on his knees, palms up, “I let you eat all my seed cake.”

The boy moved suddenly, fumbling to open the pack. He rummaged around inside it and pulled out an acorn dumpling, offering it tentatively to Ronin.

“Thank you,” Ronin held his hand out, letting the child give it to him rather than taking it.

The boy watched him eat it, then pointed out towards the rookery entry way.

“No,” Ronin shook his head, “I can’t let you go. It’s not safe.”

The boy waited a moment, and when Ronin didn’t move, he thrust another dumpling at him insistently.

“No,” Ronin curled the boy’s fingers back around it, closing both hands gently around the child’s, “you can’t go.”

The boy whimpered, causing the birds to stir restlessly. Ronin just missed getting hit in the face by a wing as the birds resettled.

“Everything’s okay,” Ronin held still, but didn’t release him, “I won’t let anyone hurt you.”

Something crashed on the lower floor. It sounded like someone had dropped a feed bin. The boy yelped and dove for Ronin, catching the general off guard and nearly knocking him on his back. He wasn’t trying to attack though. Instead he clung to him, clutching at his jinbaori and pressing into him as if he were trying to hide in it.

“Well, at least I’m the lesser evil,” Ronin said dryly, wrapping his arms around the boy and rocking him while he whimpered and sobbed, “what do you say we go meet the queen? She can be the lesser evil for a while.”


End file.
